1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic apparatus that has a built-in driver, an information processing system that is equipped with the electronic apparatus, and a method of controlling the electronic apparatus, and more particularly, to a technique of automatically installing the driver for the electronic apparatus in an information processing device when the electronic apparatus is to be connected as a peripheral device to the information processing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
So-called “plug-and-play” (PnP) has become popular, because, with the “plug-and-play” mechanism, a peripheral device can be immediately used without a special process when the peripheral device is connected to an information processing device such as a personal computer.
The applicant has disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-256349 (Patent Document 1) that a driver for an electronic device stored in an electronic apparatus is automatically installed in an information processing device. The electronic apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a first device and a second device that stores the driver for the first device. The electronic apparatus activates the second device before the first device, so that the driver can be read out from the second device via an interface.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-150530 (Patent Document 2) discloses a structure that includes a main device, a sub device that stores a driver program for operating the main device with a host device, and an interface control unit that outputs first data for causing the host device to recognize the sub device when connected to the host device, and then outputs second data for causing the host device to recognize the main device.
With the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, however, once the electronic apparatus is connected to an information processing device and installs the driver software in the device, the second device cannot be in an enabled state when the electronic apparatus is connected to another information processing device. As a result, the driver software cannot be installed in the information processing device.
With the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, the interface control unit that causes the host device to recognize the sub device and then the main device is essential when connected to the host device. Because of the interface control unit, the device structure becomes complicated.